Speech

Sometimes, wether you like it or not, you’re going to have a bad day. You may get a bad grade on a test, or forget to do your homework. If you have a pet, you know that they can cheer you up. They’re someone you’re always happy to see after you have a bad day, and as happy as they make us, we make them just as happy. These dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, and other pets we have live for our affection, and wait all day for us to come home just to pat them on the head, and make them feel loved, wanted and accepted. However, not all animals are fortunate enough to enjoy such love and affection; in fact, some of them suffer their whole lives without it, orphaned in a shelter, just waiting to hopefully, maybe, get adopted some day.

Approximately 17-22 million animals are used in research each year. These animals, including dogs and cats, are sprayed, shocked, prodded, cut, and injected every day. These animals are used to test the harmfulness of items like soaps, perfumes, furniture cleaners, eye shadow, and oven cleaner. Testing facilities make animals ingest these products, and then record what happens to them, to see if they could possibly be harmful to humans. These animals end up develop rashes, eye bleeds, nose bleeds, skin diseases, and they often die too. Innocent animals are tortured, just to see if companies can sell some spray that will make our tables look shiny and new, when we could just as easily grab a wet rag and rub the down, right? It doesn’t make sense. Even if a product is found to cause a disease or rash, no cure for it is ever sought; no antidote is searched for or developed. So these tests end up being a waste, failing to find a way to cure a human injury. The animals from these tests are left broken and scarred. The ones that don’t die will typically end up on the street, or in an animal shelter, where they stay, just hoping that somebody will come adopt, and love them.

Along with the animals scarred from testing, approximately 5 to 7 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year, and approximately 3 to 4 million are euthanized. Maybe this statistic means nothing to you. Maybe you’ve never owned a pet, don’t care to, and think animals are stupid. That’s understandable, not everybody is a pet lover, I get that, but for the sake of humanity, you surely aren’t okay with torture and neglect. If a child showed up at your door, and he was lost, hungry, and didn’t know where his family was, you wouldn’t just say “oh that sucks for you child” and close your door. Any decent human being would be morally obligated to take him out of the cold, and keep him safe. If you would do this for a child, why not do it for a dog, or a cat.

Even if you’re situation can’t possible allow you to adopt from an animal shelter, the least you could do is donate some money. 65% of dogs and cats in animal shelters die each year, simply because there is nobody to adopt them, and they lack the funds to keep them alive. These shelters need money to keep these animals alive, long enough for somebody to adopt them. So even if theres no room in your life for a pet, the animal shelters and volunteer orginations like the ASPCA will gladly accept your much-needed donations.

In the end, it isn’t so much a matter of loving pets as it is being a humane person. Apathy to the acts of torture and neglect that these animals are subjected to speaks enough for itself. I just told you about the horrors these animals go through, you can no longer plead ignorance, and act like it isn’t a problem. These animals are tortured, and neglected, and seemingly destined to live a life alone. You can change that by adopting or sponsoring a pet from your local animal shelter.